


Pictures of You

by spacedinosaurs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Canon Compliant, F/M, Multi, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28069839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedinosaurs/pseuds/spacedinosaurs
Summary: A work-in-progress looking into Remus' life starting at the beginning of the Prisoner of Azkaban and including parts of his past.
Relationships: Remus Lupin & Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Kudos: 4





	1. The Letters

It came through the letterbox, earlier than the usual post. Remus Lupin didn’t read this letter, recognising the familiar red stamped gum. Of course, he knew this wouldn’t be the last letter, but he hoped that whoever it was that was trying to reach him would get the message eventually and give up.  
This did not happen.  
Instead, letters upon letters turned up throughout the month of June and continued into the start of July. All of them ended up either in his soot covered fireplace acting as a sort of kindling, or the bin.   
Then, the owls came. Remus hadn’t seen an owl carrying post in a while. In fact, he had desperately hoped he wouldn’t see one again but unfortunately for him, he did. He saw more owls than he had thought possible. They gathered outside his house. Sitting on the fence, the trees, the roof. Anything they could sit on, they did. Remus had never been more thankful that the house his father left him was in the middle of nowhere, he couldn’t possibly think of an excuse to tell his neighbours (if he had any) about the unreasonably large gathering of owls his house seemed to attract. But still, he ignored them – all they did after all was drop a letter and sit there, waiting for him to tie another to their leg and then fly off again. They weren’t exactly bothering him. He could still live his life and eventually, this would stop. Eventually, someone would get the message that Remus Lupin did not want to be disturbed.   
He had lived out here in solitude for a long time and had no want to return to the wizarding world. Not after everything that had happened. 

So, he ignored the letters and the owls, and he ignored his phone – nobody usually called him, it was just there in case and he suspected the person on the other end of the line would have a harsh Scottish accent and would sympathetically ask him how he was before giving him a lecture on the importance of answering mail. He didn’t want to deal with that. Not today. Not ever. He wanted to avoid that world at all costs. The world that had once been filled with bright memories, all of which memories were now tainted. A dark fog over them, clouding them. They simply weren’t the same anymore and Remus doubted that that world could ever bring him the same happiness as it once had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's such a short one


	2. The Escape of Sirius Black

A sharp rap on the hard wooden door upstairs woke Remus up but he didn’t move from his current position on the concrete floor. The floor, you see, was cool and Remus was far too hot. The cold was nice against his bare skin. So, nice he ignored the pools of blood surrounding him for a bit. Perhaps he could just stay here for a bit. Close his eyes and go to sleep. That seemed like a good idea, he was so tired and maybe this wasn’t worth it anymore. Maybe the darkness surrounding him could be an escape. An escape from this horrendous basement, with the horrendous silver door. An escape from the nothingness of his life. And most importantly an escape from the pain clinging onto his body.  
These thoughts were a frequent occurrence for him however, and he knew that even though they wouldn’t necessarily pass, they would become slightly easier to ignore once he no longer felt that every single bone in his body was broken.  
So, for a little bit longer he lay there on the cold concrete floor in the darkness of the basement he used to be so familiar with. But, when the bursts of pain subsided ever so slightly, he got up, opened the silver door carefully and made his way to the kitchen.  
The kitchen hadn’t changed at all since he’s been a child. It still contained the dark wooden counters, the old stove and fridge. His fridge was bare and the only food he really had to eat currently was bread, but he couldn’t exactly go to the closest shop when he looked as though he was on the brink of death – so bread it was. His mother’s yellow kettle whistled, the mugs clicked as he pulled them out of the cupboard, the plastic bag the bread was in crinkled, the wooden chair scarped against the tiled floor and Remus began his process of healing himself.  
A variety of herbs, muggle medicine and spells were the routine he had come to use over the years. Of course, this wasn’t the best and he would always remember his days in the medical ward with madam Pomfrey fondly – despite having dreaded them at the time. 

The owls were still there, and a letter still turned up every morning; he’d acquired quite a large stack now and had begun keeping them next to the soot covered fireplace, using them as a form of kindling whenever he ran out of wood. He bought himself some food, read his books, drank his tea, ignored the letters, went outside every so often, did some crosswords, ignored the owls. He did everything he could to keep his mind distracted from that world as he could and in return it was quiet for a while. 

Until a newspaper was thrust through the letter box in his door. It landed heavily and Remus simply assumed it was more letters. When he walked from the kitchen to the stairs is when he noticed it. A large broadsheet rolled up with a piece of paper tucked underneath brown string. Remus didn’t subscribe to the local paper, or any paper for that matter, so, he simply assumed there had been some kind of mix up. The newsagents must have a new paper boy who didn’t know the area – who got Remus’ house mixed up with the other small run-down cottage that sat in the middle of nowhere a good 20-minute walk from the rest of the town.  
He left it there, on the wooden floor, for a while. It was stupid of him to be worried about picking up a newspaper that likely had just been delivered to him by mistake, but every time he passed it, he couldn’t help but notice the odd-looking paper sticking out from the string. Brown, aged, crinkled paper.  
Finally, he picked it up. First, he just took the note out and placed it on the table in front of him, staring at it for a while before unfolding it and seeing the familiar neat handwriting that said:

_Remus  
You have been ignoring my letters and the owls. But this is something I feel you need to know about. I hope you are well.  
Professor McGonagall_

The sunken, dark face of a young Sirius Black looked at Remus as he held up a plaque with his prisoner number on it. 390. That was his number. 389 people had been to Azkaban before Sirius. Sirius had sworn he wouldn’t end up there in their 6th year. He’d promised Remus he wouldn’t end up like the rest of his family yet here he was. He was in Azkaban with 2 of his family members. He’d broken a few promises he’d made to Remus in their school years, but this one was the most confusing.  
His eyes wandered from the photo of his old friend to the headline ‘Escape from Azkaban’. Remus had to read the headline over and over again. Nobody had escaped from Azkaban. Nobody. But if anyone was going to it would be Sirius, he probably transformed into that big black dog and managed to walk right past the dementors – Remus wanted to laugh. He didn’t read the article; he didn’t want to. All the article would do was rehash the story of what had taken place in Godric’s Hollow that night – it would talk about Lily and James in a distanced way that one could talk about them if they’d never met them. And, of course, it’d talk about the boy who lived. Not wanting to hear the details again, he went to the fireplace and picked the letter on the top of the stack, then opened it. 

_Remus,  
I know you are not reading these letters, but I have been instructed to keep trying to get in contact with you and considering that nobody seems to know where you live – though I am fairly certain that you are staying at your father’s house – it seems that I am going to have to keep sending you them.  
The position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor has opened up once again. I am writing to you to ask if you would be interested in taking up this position at the request of Headmaster Dumbledore. Both myself and Dumbledore believe that you would be a perfect fit for this job. I know that you are reluctant to return and considering everything you’ve been through that is perfectly understandable, but I think it’s time for you to come back. I’m assuming that you know Harry has started at school, he’ll be going into his third year and the first two have certainly been eventful. Having someone who knew his parents, and someone like yourself in general, would be, in my opinion, a great thing for Harry and his progress.  
I hope these letters find you well. Please write back with your response, any questions you have or just if you wish to. I would love to hear from you.  
Professor McGonagall._

All of the other letters simply asked him if he would like the job. This one had come yesterday, the writing looked more rushed and he felt guilty for not looking at them. For not trying to keep in contact with McGonagall at least. This guilt subsided though when he looked back at the moving photograph of Sirius. At the face of his old friend. He looked exactly has he had all those years ago. The same sharp facial features were slightly more hollowed out than when they were children at Hogwarts but that could only have been expected with age and the stress of fighting in a war. Though the photo was in black and white, Remus could still somehow see the hints of his piercing blue eyes looking through the paper at him. The only thing that was really different from what he remembered of Sirius was his hair, it had been shaven. No longer did his hair sit just below his shoulders, or occasionally tied back with a bobble borrowed off of Lily. No. Instead his once long, curled black hair was gone and now he was screaming. And of course, the grin that Remus had become so used to seeing was no longer there either.  
The photo kept his attention. He desperately wanted to look away and stop imagining an even more hollow, tired image of Sirius Black in a cell sitting a mere husk of his former self. Of course, he wasn’t. Not anymore. Instead, he was out there, somewhere. Remus had a sudden thought that perhaps he would come looking for him – and the knock on the door at that moment didn’t help to ease his nerves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one.  
> Don't know how I feel about this one so it might disappear in a couple of hours, or I'll edit it at some point :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> Thanks for reading!!  
> This is a work in progress and I'm not entirely sure how it'll go lol but hopefully it's not a complete mess:) I'll try and update as often as possible!  
> I wanted to write this after reading All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 (https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/10057010/chapters/22409387) as it was honestly just amazing and it will 100% be better than this will, so please check that out.  
> Basically i've always loved Remus (both in the books and films) but it's annoying we don't see that much of him, or much to do with him and I wanted to explore that (things like what it was like seeing sirius again, the second war for him and his relationship with Tonks.) I know that some of the fannon for his and Tonks' relationship is that he was pressured into it by both Tonks and Molly but I don't see it that way - from everything we know about Remus I find it unlikely he'd do something he didn't want to especially if it put another person at risk.  
> Sorry this is such a long note, I'll probably shorten it later lol


End file.
